MotoGP ticket row LATEST
Dorna caught in the cross fire
MotoGP bosses Dorna insist they are not directly responsible for assisting fans still chasing ticket refunds from the Covid-19 hit 2020 season. MCN has heard from fans who booked though the official website, tickets.motogp.com, and have been struggling to get their money back but Dorna say the delay is not down to them. “The issuance of tickets is always the sole responsibility of the company operating the circuit and never Dorna, nor does Dorna re-sell Grand Prix tickets,” Ignacio Sagnier, Director of Communications at Dorna, told MCN. “Each promoter has established its own policy on exchanges and returns.” Sagnier continued: “There are promoters who gave a 100% refund as soon as the event was cancelled, for example Austin, Valencia, Thailand, France and Aragon. Others did it later by applying a small admin fee to the refund, such as Catalunya, Germany and Finland. “Finally, Assen and Argentina have created a ‘ticket rollover’ in which the same ticket is valid for the next year.”
Fans who bought 2020 tickets via the official motogp.com site technically did so via another company called Platinium Group. Where races were moved and crowds prohibited, customers were then offered a refund minus a small admin fee - which Platinium only pay out once the promoter (ie the track) has paid back the money for the refund. As it stands, tickets for both Portimao and Brno are yet to be refunded with no ‘ticket rollover’ available. Sagnier confirmed
‘Each promoter has established its own policy’ IGNACIO SAGNIER, DORNA
that the promoter for Jerez has recently been able to return the money to both end users and its ‘re-sellers’.
Platinium Group have offered a ticket rollover where permitted, or an account credit of 100% that can be used across the 2021 season. Whether or not fans will be able to attend this year remains to be seen, with some no doubt questioning booking due to the uncertainty of the current Covid situation globally. Sagnier added that Dorna are keen to keep everyone happy. He said: “I can promise you that Dorna ‘summons/requests’ the promoters to refund the money. I wouldn’t say that we put pressure on promoters but we go one step forward and we want to have happy fans back at the tracks.”